Chat With the Owners of Etete, Cafe Pizzaiolo, and KBQ Real Barbeque

The magazine's Best Bargain Restaurants issue hits newsstands next week, with more than 25 newcomers nudging their way onto the annual list of 100 — not to mention an up-close and personal look at the key players in the world of cheap eats and a celebration of some of the region's defining dishes (pho, dosas, kabobs, wats, pupusas).

With that in mind, and with food and wine editor Todd Kliman on assignment, we thought it only fitting to convene a special cheap eats panel to host Kliman Online this Tuesday, May 20, at 11.

Our guests may lack the pedigree and the publicity machine of their counterparts in the world of fine dining, but they are forces, nonetheless: Yared Tesfaye, the owner of Etete in DC's Little Ethiopia, the best Ethiopian restaurant in the region; Larry Ponzi, the proprietor and pizza-maker at Cafe Pizzaiolo, in Crystal City, home to one of the most addictive pies in town — boutique or otherwise; and Kerry Britt, who runs KBQ in Bowie, which serves up stellar country-style 'cue and sides.

What's the secret to the complex and fiery wats made by Tesfaye's mother, Tiwaltengus Shenegelgn? And why does Stevie Wonder always seek her out when he comes to town? What are the keys to Ponzi's cracklingly thin crusts? And why does he think 2 Amys is not pizza nirvana? How does Britt produce such irresistible 'cue without benefit of an open pit (forbidden in Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, but permissible in Charles County)? And what's his personal connection to Fred Wesley, the legendary trombonist best known for his work in the '60s and '70s with James Brown's JB's?